Papa John's John Schnatter should have admitted racial bias and learned to do better

Papa John's founder John Schnatter is no longer board chairman after using a racial slur, but he remains the company's largest shareholder. Ricky L. Jones, a university professor says it is evident that he has levels of racial insensitivity. (July 12)
AP

Papa John's founder John Schnatter's resignation reminds us we all have biases. We need to acknowledge that and resist acting on our prejudices.

As president of an organization that has trained thousands of people in diversity and cultural competence, I am all too familiar with the racism displayed by John Schnatter, founder and chairman of Papa John’s Pizza, who resigned after using a racial slur on a company call. Like many public figures who find themselves in similar situations, he initially apologized and tried to present himself as a person free of prejudice.

Schnatter could have taken a lesson from Starbucks, which responded to a racist incident by admitting there was a problem and holding a company-wide anti-bias training. Such training, when done right, can weaken conscious and unconscious prejudices — and help people to have more empathy and respect for each other.

Last year, Schnatter criticized the NFL players who have been protesting the ill treatment of African-Americans by police officers. Regardless of whether he believes that taking a knee during the national anthem is an appropriate or effective way to correct this injustice or not, he demonstrated a lack of concern for the problem. He compounded his callousness by using the N-word during a company call and assumed it was okay, because he was quoting someone else.

Every ethnic group has a stereotype

Like many people, Schnatter is most likely lying to himself and geniunly feels that he is not racist. Project Implicit, a collaboration of researchers at Harvard University and other universities, has shown that most people, both white and black, have an unconscious bias against African-Americans, and they deny that bias, even to themselves. This does not include those people who are overtly prejudiced and proud of it.

Addressing unconscious bias requires a willingness to acknowledge the truth, which can be encouraged through effective training. This may be what Starbucks was attempting to do, however, I believe their training placed too much emphasis on assigning blame for social inequities.

In my trainings, I assert that everyone in the room is prejudiced against some group of people based on race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexual orientation, gender identity, accent, body type, physical presentation (grooming, dress, tattoos, etc.) or other factors. I explain that "prejudice" is about prejudging people before you know them, often based on stereotypes. I encourage everyone to identify stereotypes associated with a group they belong to.

Sharing these stereotypes and how it makes them feel is cathartic and creates a sense of empathy among the participants. When listening to one another, people recognize themselves as having been both the object of some forms of prejudice and the agent of other forms, which is crucial. My intent is not to imply that different forms of prejudice are equivalent. I am simply employing a strategy to make it safe for people to acknowledge their prejudices — by presenting them as an inevitable part of being human.

Many diversity trainings divide participants into "victims" and "offenders," which causes the presumed offenders to resist acknowledging their biases. Many stubbornly lie to themselves — which is the exact opposite of the purpose of anti-bias training. I believe Starbucks may have made this error. I commend Starbucks for its commitment to fighting racism. However, the company may have inadvertently hardened the hearts of some employees who felt that they were cast as “offenders” because of their white skin.

Acknowledge bias and don't act on it

In my trainings, the enemy is not any particular group of people but the human tendency to divide the world into "us" and "them" and to dehumanize "them." I always present information about social injustice and the many horrible facts around racial inequality, but I work hard at encouraging everyone in the room to speak about themselves as a victim of a stereotype or some type of mistreatment. Allowing each person to express how they have personally been treated unjustly disarms those who would otherwise resist anti-bias training. Most of us are better able to hear the concerns of others after we have expressed our own.

Once they have lowered their defenses, I encourage people to see their own prejudices, and I model this by revealing mine. Perhaps this kind of experience would help Schnatter develop empathy for the NFL players who are protesting police treatment of African-Americans and those of us who cringe at hearing the N-word.

I call my workshops “Managing Your Prejudices.” I don’t call them “Eliminating Your Prejudices,” because I want participants to understand that treating others fairly requires an ongoing effort to acknowledge one’s biases and to resist acting upon them. This requires honest self-reflection — which does NOT occur in the context of blame and guilt. Unconscious biases weaken over time only as a result of positive interactions between people and the realization that “this person is similar to me in fundamental ways, even though he or she may look or act differently.”